I went to the free seminar and was the only person there! So it was more like a personal training seminar. But we really just went over basic exercises and he watched my form and gave feedback. Mostly he said my form was quite good, but he also gave me some helpful hints. So I ended up doing a light workout on an off day. I was a little worried it would affect my workout today, but I think I did okay.

For some reason the wide grip pullup is much harder than the narrow grip for me, even though I do lat pulldowns at the wide grip and I can do 90# on those.

Today I looked in the mirror and I can see that I am looking a little different. I think I look a little thinner all around, and my abdomen area looks firmer. I don't know why, because I have been eating like a pig lately. However, I have been pigging out my own homemade food, so maybe that's not so bad.

Last edited by FormicaLinoleum on Tue Nov 01, 2005 8:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

FormicaLinoleum wrote:For some reason the wide grip pullup is much harder than the narrow grip for me, even though I do lat pulldowns at the wide grip and I can do 90# on those.

Yes, the wide grip IS harder. The wide grip pull up is a very tough exercise to master and most people i see that do them (not many do pull ups at all) do them wrong.

Today I looked in the mirror and I can see that I am looking a little different. I think I look a little thinner all around, and my abdomen area looks firmer. I don't know why, because I have been eating like a pig lately. However, I have been pigging out my own homemade food, so maybe that's not so bad.

Yesterday was a day one workout. For the second time in a row, I got weaker on barbell bench press. I had been doing 70#, then last week I was able to do only 3 reps with that weight. This week I could barely do a couple, so I reduced it down to 60# and I still could do only 7 reps with that.

I don't know what the deal is, but right now I am going to try to do it 2x a week rather than just once. I had been doing it 2x, but then when I switched up my routine and started going to the gym 3x a week, I started doing bb bench press just once, and db inclines and dips the other days. Right now I am going to replace the dips with more bb bench and see if I start to get stronger again. I'll try to figure out how I can work dips back in to my routine.

I've been going with a friend... I guess we have gone three times so far. I really like having a buddy and she says she absolutely loves working out, so I am psyched.

Haha! Well, I figured out what the problem was with my bench press--my math! I wasn't getting weaker after all--I had been trying 80# when I meant to be doing 70#, and when I thought I was reducing it down to 60#, I was really reducing it to 70#. Today I used the right weight, and I think I can go back to my original routine of doing bb bench press 1x a week and having dips in my day two routine.

FormicaLinoleum wrote:No progress on the pullup. Alex, if you happen to read this, can you tell me what most people do wrong when they do pullups?

Hi Liz. Of course i read your log

What i meant was that most people concentrate on pulling themselves up as often as possible, not heeding the form. The article Will linked is great.
I do pull ups similar to what the author calls "sternum pull ups". I believe that the shoulders must be pulled backwards and the chest pushed out towards the bar. One shouldn't do the move using arms and shoulder muscles mainly. It's hard to explain, i'm better at showing it Anyway, for the beginning, just pull

*I switched to using the leg press machine for my calves, rather than the specific calf press machine they have. I just could not get into the calf press thing, it was a weird position and motion. On the leg press I can get a stretch in the calf, which was not possible on the calf press machine. 170 was too easy though, so next time I'll go to 210.

I started this particular routine just last month, but I've been working out in some form since June of this year. Also, I do a single set of each exercise, which means I can do heavier weights than I would if were aiming to be able to do 3x12 or something like that.

Daywalker wrote:Liz, you're strong!

A couple of weeks ago I went shopping and had lots of groceries. I was on my own so I loaded myself up with all the bags and headed to my car. As I got there and put my stuff down, a guy going by said "you are very strong--you must work out a lot" and I responded "I do!". I didn't know what else to say! It's funnier if you can hear how I said it.

I really need to add deadlift! But I had such forms problems last time I did them that I don't want to start again until I can get someone to go over how to do them with me in person. And I don't know how to make that happen.

I also need to work on my grip, which is pretty sad. I'm finding that my grip is already starting to be limiting, like on the lat pulldowns. Maybe I will do some static holds of some heavy dumbbells.